Be-bop and Golden Buddhas
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Be-bop and Golden Buddhas
By Chen Nan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-21 08:06
Those reeling from rock 'n' roll burnout in the wake of the third annual
Beijing Pop Festival cand chill to the cool sounds of the Beijing Jazz
Festival this month.
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Sofia Jannok
The festival, which is the eighth reincarnation of the 1999 Beijing
International Jazz Festival, features a lineup of 14 local and 16 foreign
jazz bands and musicians, as principal of the Midi Music School, Zhang
Fan, who organized the festival in cooperation with Beijing Midi
Productions, brings to the capital a vivid outdoors jazz experience.
This year's festival will feature acts on the Blue and White stages.
Performers to grace the Blue Stage hail from the ranks of more
traditional-style acts and will rip into swing, cool jazz and be-bop.
The White Stage would be dedicated to more modern styles of jazz and
world music, such as fusion, Latin, flamenco, R&B and funk. And in
addition to instrumental performances, the White Stage would also feature
dancing.
Local heroes to grace the stage include the Liu Yuan Jazz Band, Golden
Buddha Jazz Unit, Lawrence Ku Septet and Xia Jia.
International acts would perform a mix of styles from around the world.
Two groups from Spain - Yahle and Jaume Vilaseca Quartet - infuse
flamenco into their sound. The New York-based Donny McCaslin Jazz Quartet
is led by tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, who has earned a reputation
for versatility, poise and a vigorous approach to improvisation. And he
has become increasingly prolific as a bandleader, drawing from the
brimming pool of similarly broad-minded New York musicians and writing
music that suits their worldly ideals.
Sofia Jannok, of Sweden, croons tunes in her native language of Sami. And
American clawhammer banjo player and singer Abigail Washburn, who is no
stranger to Beijing, will perform with her friends.
Norway's leading jazz pianist of the past several decades, Dag Arnesen,
has joined forces with bassist Terje Gewelt and drummer Pal Thowsen to
interpret Arnesen's repertoire into jazz-piano-trio format. This piano
trio has played together for several years and previously released the
critically acclaimed album Time Enough.
As the sun goes down, the festival would spread out among local venues
throughout the capital, such as the City Cafe, the East Shore Live Jazz
Cafe and Peking University Hall. Master classes with Donny McClaskin,
Royal Hartigan and Jens Winter will be open to public audiences at the
Beijing Midi School of Music.
A total of 14 Chinese and 16 international acts will perform, from
September 21 to the 23 at Haidian Park. More info at beijingjazz.cn. 100
yuan for a three-day pass. 6282-2006.
(China Daily 09/19/2007 page4)
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